


Nature is a Haunted House

by Brumeier



Series: Bite Sized Fic 2020 [87]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Fear, Forests, Haunting, M/M, Mission Fic, Prompt Fill, SGA Saturday Prompt Challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-16
Updated: 2020-10-16
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:08:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27037726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brumeier/pseuds/Brumeier
Summary: LJ Comment Fic for Hauntings prompt:Stargate Atlantis, Evan Lorne +/ any, offworld mission through a haunted forestIn which Lorne's team is in a creepy offworld forest, and they decide not to stay long.
Relationships: Evan Lorne/David Parrish
Series: Bite Sized Fic 2020 [87]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1610332
Comments: 6
Kudos: 20
Collections: Bite Sized Bits of Fic from 2020, SGA Saturday Prompt Challenge





	Nature is a Haunted House

**Author's Note:**

> Also written for sga_saturday: blow

It was the wind Evan didn’t like. It wasn’t strong, but it was persistent, moving through the bare tree limbs and making them creak and groan. Sometimes it almost sounded like a human voice, a low, long cry of despair.

“This is an old-growth forest,” David said, his usual exuberance tamped down, and his voice hushed. “There are less than twenty percent of them left on Earth.”

“Tree hugger,” Tanner murmured.

Evan glanced back and glared at him, but David was more than capable to speaking for himself.

“Conservationist,” David corrected. “I don’t chain myself to trees or put sugar in gas tanks at logging sites.”

“Stay focused, people.”

Initial readings generated by one of the new airborne drone MALPs had indicated there were no settlements on the planet. Most of it was covered by the forest. There were no energy readings, either, which was why Colonel Sheppard’s team hadn’t taken the mission.

The wind blew around them, sending up its mournful lament, and the hairs on the back of Evan’s neck rose. The light was dim, twilight time his Gram called it, and the sad-sounding wind had a bit of a chill in it. Autumn temperatures with the leafless trees one would expect to find in January.

“Interesting that there don’t seem to be any sempervirens,” David said. “Evergreen trees. I would’ve expected to see at least one type here.”

“Is that indicative of anything?” Fullwood asked. Unlike Tanner, she didn’t object to having a Botanist along from time to time if the mission warranted it.

“I’ll take some soil samples,” David replied. “But it could be as simple as the Ancients not seeding this planet with a variety of evergreen and deciduous trees.”

“One big creepy garden,” Tanner muttered.

Something sizeable darted through the trees in Evan’s periphery, and he held up his fist. Everyone stopped, and Tanner and Fullwood did slow sweeps with the lights mounted to their P90s. 

“You see something, sir?”

“Not sure,” Evan admitted. 

All around them the trees creaked and groaned, bare wood rubbing against bare wood and sounding a little like whispers. 

“I’ve got nothing,” Tanner said.

“Same,” Fullwood reported.

Evan nodded. He didn’t see or hear anything that indicated any other life forms near them, though he was certain there had to be insects and small animals living in the forest. Maybe they were all hibernating.

“Get your samples, Doc,” Evan said.

He kept watch with Fullwood and Tanner while David opened his case and started collecting soil samples, tree bark, and baggies full of leaf litter. He made notes, took pictures, and labeled each sample with a steady hand. There were no green and growing things to take back to Atlantis this time.

The wind blew, and this time Evan swore he heard a word carried along on it, a name said on one long exhale with the vowels drawn out. 

_Bluebell_

“What the fuck, sir?” Tanner asked.

Evan shared a wide-eyed look with David, the only member of the team who was aware of Evan’s rather unusual middle name.

“Pack it up, Doc. Tanner, Fullwood, prepare for retreat.”

No-one argued, and David repacked his botany case in record time. The creepy forest was getting to all of them. Maybe they’d come back when the planet had cycled around to spring-like temps, and the forest wouldn’t seem so intimidating when there were leaves on all the trees. Maybe.

The hike back to the Gate, which was in a small clearing, took twice as long. They had to keep stopping because there was more almost-seen movement through the trees, shadows that never coalesced into something identifiable. 

“I’m not coming back here without a team of ghost hunters, sir,” Tanner said. “This place is creepy as fuck.”

“Seconded,” Fullwood added.

Just before they stepped through the Gate and back into Atlantis, Evan swore he heard it again, the wind carrying the breathless sound across the clearing. 

_Bluebell_

**Author's Note:**

>  **AN:** Title from this quote by Emily Dickinson: _Nature is a haunted house – but Art – is a house that tries to be haunted._


End file.
